THE LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS

Act 4 Scene 1

(Enter Timon)
l1l	Timon	 Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall
l2l		That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth,
l3l		And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent!
l4l		Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools,
l5l		Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench
l6l		And minister in their steads! To general filths
l7l		Convert o’ th’ instant, green virginity!
l8l		Do ’t in your parents’ eyes. Bankrupts, hold fast!
l9l		Rather than render back, out with your knives,
l10l		And cut your trusters’ throats. Bound servants, steal!
l11l		Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
l12l		And pill by law. Maid, to thy master’s bed!
l13l		Thy mistress is o’ th’ brothel. Son of sixteen,
l14l		Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire#
l15l		With it beat out his brains! Piety and fear,
l16l		Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
l17l		Domestic awe, night rest, and neighbourhood,
l18l		Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
l19l		Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,
l20l		Decline to your confounding contraries,
l21l		And let confusion live! Plagues incident to men,
l22l		Your potent and infectious fevers heap
l23l		On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,
l24l		Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
l25l		As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty,
l26l		Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,
l27l		That ’gainst the stream of virtue they may strive
l28l		And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,
l29l		Sow all th’ Athenian bosoms, and their crop
l30l		Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
l31l		That their society, as their friendship, may
l32l		Be merely poison!
		(He tears off his clothes)
		 Nothing I’ll bear from thee
l33l		But nakedness, thou detestable town#
l34l		Take thou that too, with multiplying bans.
l35l		Timon will to the woods, where he shall find
l36l		Th’ unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
l37l		The gods confound—hear me you good gods all—
l38l		Th’ Athenians, both within and out that wall#
l39l		And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
l40l		To the whole race of mankind, high and low.
l41l		Amen.
		(Exit)
	?Middleton>